Just a quick note on ambroxan

I’m still catching up on orders and have the contest winner packages to ship, so no time for working on scents right now. 

I saw the new Escentric Molecules 02 scents are based on ambroxan, and although I love that aroma chem I find it hard to imagine a scent made with it as a main ingredient.  Ambroxan has a wonderful musky amber quality with a soft animalic aspect, but in high doses it can seem a bit harsh or soapy to some people, while others hardly smell it at all.  It has always seemed best used as a soft base note to me.   It isn’t really very close to real ambergris, but it is my favorite of the related aroma chems I’ve tried (Ambrox DL and Cetalox have an objectionable animalic undertone that is sort of a BO note to me, while ambroxan has the good qualities of the others without the undertone that didn’t work for my nose).

The EM 01 scents used ISO E Super and that’s easier to imagine being a success because ISO E is practically a scent in itself.  ISO E is quite cedary but also has amber and musk aspects.  To those who smell it well, it is beautiful.  I find ambroxan beautiful too, but not a fragrance in itself.  I’d be interested someday to sniff the 02 and see what subtle touches they added to try to make a complete fragrance centered around ambroxan.